025 [Action]

[fabrecation]

[Sunset of the 21st. After looking in his diary several times to make sure of the date, Luke has practically memorized the exact time it happened. This is the day, and the time, that he and Xion confessed to each other, without the influence of the experiment, and shared their first kiss.

This is the place, too. Luke leans on the railing of the bridge nearest House 14, staring out ahead of him and obviously lost in his thoughts. Even though this is the day, and even though they had been making plans to celebrate it, Luke's sure that Xion won't be able to now. Not with everything that's happened.

Still, that doesn't mean he can't find his own way to celebrate. It isn't much, though; he just leans on the bridge and twirls a blue iris idly in his fingers. Later, past sunset, he'll make his way to Seventh Heaven for the first time in quite a while, only to practice the piano. He's been away from it for a good while, so he's just a tad rusty. But he still manages to get over it after a song or two, and he doesn't mind, for once, if anyone else is there. He'd even be happy to chat it up with someone, whether on the bridge or in Seventh Heaven.

He does seem a tad cautious, though. He hasn't been here for a while for a reason and all.]

Comments

[meteorical]

...his memories of me, yes. But yes, he's where she came from. So to not only lose a friend but to lose someone she was created from...it's hard. It's harder on her, and it's harder on Roxas, than it is on the rest of us. Those two have a special bond with him, her especially because she never got to meet Sora before coming to Luceti.

[fabrecation]

... It's kind of like if I lost Asch. [Kairi knows he's a replica, so it shouldn't be too hard to talk about. Though he still isn't looking up from his apparent fixation on the river.] I didn't come from his memories or anything, so I can't really relate. But he's my original. He's the reason I exist. I don't know what I'd do if he suddenly went away.

... At the same time, it's kind of scary to have him around.

[meteorical]

...well Asch is sort of a scary person in general, but I have a feeling that's not what you mean. [That is to say, go ahead, Luke. Share your feelings with us. Now.]

[fabrecation]

Heh... Not really, no.

Asch and I... we're two separate people now, I know that. But for a while, I thought... I thought he'd come back and take the life he should've had. The life of Luke fon Fabre. I thought I'd be pushed out of the only life I knew for as long as I lived. I wanted it to happen, but... at the same time, I was terrified of it.

It's kind of pathetic, but I still think that way sometimes.

[meteorical]

[...that is kind of a terrifying thought the longer she thought about it.]

You were afraid of being erased. You wanted to keep your own identity...that's not unusual. You and Asch are both really lucky to have been able to form your own lives here.

[A beat.] ...Luke? Do you mind telling me how it all happened for you and Asch?

[fabrecation]

[He gives a slow nod to the first part, though he hesitates over her question. That's... kind of a big question to ask, and it isn't something he normally talks about to people from Luceti. Xion, Paprika... those are about the only ones who he'll willingly talk to about it. But... Can he trust Kairi with this? Rather, can he trust himself with her?

...]

Asch was the original Luke fon Fabre. When he was ten years old, he was kidnapped by Ma - ... by Van to be replicated. That replica was found instead of Asch. Everyone thought he was Luke fon Fabre, and no one knew he was just a fake.

And that's how I was born. Everyone just thought I was so traumatized that I lost all my memories, and that's why I couldn't walk or talk or anything. I didn't even know it until Asch pointed a sword at my throat and told me everything. That I'm just a replica of him... I stole his home, his family and his life, and I didn't even know it at all.

I was... I was just made to overturn the Score. After that... I wasn't really useful anymore. [...] I was supposed to die a while ago. After Van made me... do those things.

[And that is something he'll never be able to talk about.]

[meteorical]

[...it's just like Xion. It's just like Roxas and Xion both, but moreso the girl that so strongly resembled her. Xion was only replicated just in case Sora was useless to the Organization's plans. Wasn't that why Kohan was made, too? In case Riku was useless?

To be honest, the entire thing continually broke her heart knowing what that meant when they all returned home someday. And this wasn't any different now knowing about Luke. She was almost afraid to ask if Luke really was dead at home.]

But...why you? Why not the real L--Asch? [Because she doesn't want to get into a habit of calling them real Luke and Repliluke. It wasn't fair; Luke was his own person no matter what.] Why would they do that to a child?

[fabrecation]

Van needed Asch to help him with his plan. I was just a... a pawn, a thing to be used and thrown away. The thing Van needed to start everything he planned to do. That's all he needed me for.

[... And it hurts to say that. Luke looked up to him so much; Van was even like a father figure to him. And he was betrayed, thrown aside like trash, no longer useful.]

[meteorical]

Well, you know what? We need you for way more than that. ...you know that, don't you, Luke?

[fabrecation]

[... He brings his hands together and stays silent for a moment, only because of how much that reminded him of that time. Down there in the cells, when Van told him his plan - the fake plan, the one that would easily bring Luke to his side, told him he needed him...

Luke never knew he was lying right through his teeth. Not until Akzeriuth happened.]

... Van's the only other person who ever said that to me. Back when I thought he actually wanted me to be at his side. [He shuts his eyes, and he can't help smiling a little.] But... yeah. I know. I know that now. Still, I... Heh. It's... It feels weird to hear that. A good kind of weird.

[meteorical]

Hey now, I'm not Van. [But she just moves to rub his shoulder a bit.] A good kind of weird is better than a bad kind of weird.

...so what are you doing about Van being here now?

[fabrecation]

[His smile grows slightly thanks to the shoulder rub, and he glances at her to show his appreciation for it. But bringing up Van again just makes him look down at the river once more, smile gone again.]

... I still don't know. All I can do is keep an eye on him and make sure no one goes through the same thing I did. [His left hand curls into a light fist, and he opens it up to look down at it. Heh... This is where he saw right through it just a couple of weeks ago.] That I'm... still kind of going through.

[meteorical]

[That's good, because she's not removing her hand just yet. He looks like he needs all the support he can get.]

...can't you just let people take him down like some of the other villains around here?

[fabrecation]

It's not like he's done anything wrong here. And without the Score, he probably won't do anything wrong. Not to the village at large, anyway.

[He frowns down at the river. It frustrates him, knowing that he can't do anything...]

Maybe a part of me thinks he can change, even though I know he can't. Maybe it's just some kind of stupid hope. Maybe a world without a Score could be... I don't know. Better for him.

... But that doesn't change the fact that he's spent years manipulating and using everyone around him. He's so good at it that no one can even tell. [It's another reason among a few more that he doesn't want to tell people. If he says those things about Van? He'll just act like he was innocent, or maybe that he did wrong yet wanted to repent, and he'd be so good at it that everyone would believe him.]

[meteorical]

...does Van know you know as much as you know?

[fabrecation]

Like... what I am and stuff, or...?

[meteorical]

Yeah, all of that. Does he know that you know?

[fabrecation]

... Yeah. Of course he knows. Because he spent most of that time manipulating me. I mean... It's the only reason he made me.

[He turns his head away slightly, his eyes narrowing slightly with bitterness.]

[meteorical]

...but there has to be a way you can outsmart him enough to come out on top. It's not fair he he has the full and only advantage.

[fabrecation]

How am I supposed to outsmart him when he hasn't even done anything? [He pauses, then lets out a long sigh.] Other than use me to figure out how filters work...

[meteorical]

...wait, you still don't know how to use the filters?

[fabrecation]

No, I know how. [He can't help a half smile; even though he feels used thanks to that incident, he still feels a sense of victory as well.] Because of that, he taught me how to use them too, and he didn't even know it.

[meteorical]

I'd say maybe he's good for something then, but that might be giving him too much credit.

[fabrecation]

Mm... I guess it means I'm still learning from him. [...] Or maybe it just means I'm finding a way to fight against whatever he tries to do. I'd like to think of it that way, but...

[But his affection for his master, that feeling that's still there even after all this, really makes him want to think of the former.]

[meteorical]

...but it's hard because you can't just immediately reverse everything you were raised to believe, right? [She's getting a little better at reading you, Luke.]